new here. need help with knee injury.



BeaverJeeper

New Member
Dec 9, 2011
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Hey all! this is my first post here. here's a little back story so you can hopefully help me out a little better. sorry for the novel.

i have a knee injury in which most people would call "water on the knee" i'm not 100% sure what it means, but from all the DR.'s visits, i understand that basically my thigh muscle grew too much and pulled my knee cap, thus "shredding" the cartilage and oozing some type of juice. (gross, i know) my left knee is always filled with this juice and is quite honestly double the size of my right knee. the DR. said it as most likely caused by the tennis, cycling (BMX :p) skateboarding, and snowboarding i did.

the worse part is, i'm only 21 years old and this injury came about around 6 years ago. i've had it drained many many times. the last time it was drained, it had filled up with the juice back 100% before we even made it back home.... after that, i've been taking the "it'll go away on it's own" approach, but by now, i don't think that's going to happen. i have learned to live with it. and it's fine for the most part, never really hurts or bothers me. though, after a long day of driving in traffic when i'm holding the clutch in for long periods of time it's starts to hurt. i also cannot bend it much past 90 degrees. not from pain, but because there's simply too much fluid inside.

fast forward to today and why i'm here. i recently got into road cycling, saved up and bought my first real bike early last summer. my buddy and i rode together about 2-3 times a week, anywhere from 10 to 30 miles a day. i'm VERY much enjoying it and i even joined a cycling club and plan on doing a 200 mile "race" from seattle to portland this summer. but, nothing has changed with my knee. last summer when i first got my bike, i just ignored it because i was having too much fun riding and i didn't want my knee to bring me down.

now my question. what should i do about this? my bicycle fits me correctly, and when my knee is bent with my left pedal at the top, it almost reaches the point where it will not bend anymore. my fear is that if it does get worse, i wont be able to bend my knee as much as i need to and i will not be able to ride anymore. =[

ice/ heat doesn't seem to help any. but i don't want to just ignore it anymore. even more so now, since that 200 mile race this summer.

any and all help is welcome. thank you very much.
 
Im sorry for your knee issue, as a teenager i had myself fluid, on both knees, respectively in the form of " Baker's cyst ". However after surgery the problems disappeard.

Many years after that i had again fluid but this time it was quite painful, keeping me even resting in bed, this lasted for a couple of days and then it was gone spontaneously.

About the 200 miles event i would only do that in consecutive days, with enough rest and all the precautions that your physician could think about. Since you already do 30 miles rides then you can fix your daily mileage limit to 30 miles, completing the event in 4 to 6 days for example.
 
so, is surgery the only option? i would like to avoid that at all costs. will cycling more and more only make my knee worse?
 
Bursitis can be a symptom of greater damage being done to the joint. You should really have the issue evaluated by a professional, sports medicine orthopedic specialist. Make sure they have an interest in sports medicine. You may need to shop around and get a few second opinions - physicians do differ in the options they provide patients.

Keep working on your range of motion, it sucks when your flexion diminishes to the point where your pedal stroke is screwed up, you are in constant pain while riding and your hips and ankles start taking a beating trying to compensate.

Depending on the issue, surgery could be the best option. Educate yourself on your options, there are many different surgical procedures and techniques out there. Search journals, find information on studies and see what the outcomes are. Discuss openly your expectations and goals with your doctor(s).